Photos by Colin Houck

Who’ll Get Your Vote

Eugene Weekly ventures into Springfield to see how people there might vote in the 2020 presidential race

Eugene may be in our name, but believe it or not, Eugene Weekly covers all of Lane County and sometimes even statewide issues.

The past few editions of the “person-on-the-street” interviews about the 2020 presidential election have focused on the Eugene community, so this time EW decided to cross the freeway and hear what the fine citizens of Springfield have to say. 

As usual, our question was, “If the 2020 presidential election were held today, who would you vote for and why?”  Springfield had quite a bit to say on the topic.

Jon Walberg, 52
maintenance worker

“Well only [Donald] Trump. I might not like everything he has to say — a lot of it is abrasive — but I like his stand on getting America back on its feet by keeping people working in the state and in the country. I’m a conservative-minded kind of guy. I’m the kind of guy who believes if you want something, get off your ass and go get it. Don’t expect it to be handed to you.”

Shawn Bailey, 45
press operator: 

“I’ll stick with Trump. The economy is up and everything else. I mean, that’s just my thoughts. I just think there needs to be a lot of changes and the changes have come really quick. The media kind of makes it worse than what it is half the time.”

Rhonda Meier, 67
retired

“I would vote for Trump because I feel like the things he’s done for the economy have been great. I just retired this last year and what he did for my 401k has been fabulous. This is the first year I didn’t owe a bunch of taxes, so he’s really helped me, being on a fixed income. He’s got a lot of the laws that have already been in effect but now we’re going by them — I like that. But whoever wins, I back.”

Frankie Nyquist, 37
billing

“Bernie [Sanders] all the way. He’s logical, he’s practical — though I think he’s evolved since the last election. Politics have changed. Trump has changed things, and we have to evolve to meet the times.”

David Camaro, 41
car-lot owner/ dealer

“Bernie. There’s a lot, but for me, a main issue is facial recognition, which he’s against. I feel like facial recognition is going to become a problem in our society. And also, they’re trying to do live Google Earth and I don’t believe people should be able to be tracked with live software. Most people don’t know that. That’s something you probably won’t hear from anyone else.”

Yue Ma, 50
accountant

“I’ll say Trump. I think he brought the American economy back from the eight years before. His policies, some I agree with and some I don’t, but there is no perfect president, but I’m just looking for a good American economy.”

Robert Steinmeier, 56
mechanic

“I’m voting for Trump again. But he isn’t a politician so he can’t get anything done in the White House. I’m tired of the politicians, though, so he’s getting my vote. He’s not perfect, and I don’t agree with everything he does, but you’re never going to have that, so you make the best of a bad situation, and Trump’s the only one I think is capable of running it.”

Taylor Cantrell, 28
technical producer/ KEZI

“I’d vote for Tulsi Gabbard, honestly. I was one of the people that saw it as ‘Trump is going to mess up the system,’ which I was totally down for, but not this messed up. I like a lot of what she has to say and how she’s held people accountable, like Kamala Harris. I would like someone who can project an air of being strong, mentally — kind of like we assumed Trump would be able to do but has since become unhinged. I feel like she’s strong, mentally, and she’ll follow through with her policies.”